Mike's most rewarding technical project to date was architecting TI's OMAP 4 applications processor – and then seeing the widely diverse ways TI customers put the device to use in smartphones, tablets, robots and motor vehicles.

Now he directs a TI R&D lab that's exploring advanced signal-processing technology for imaging, vision, video and audio, but his responsibilities are roughly the same as they were on the OMAP project: Leading a team of innovative engineers dedicated to creating technology that's both very functional and very cool.

Mike originally joined TI as an intern and spent three summers in the Central Research Labs doing work on microwave devices and DLP. After receiving his Ph.D. from MIT in 1995, he joined DSP Solutions R&D, where he worked on ADSL, broadband wireless access and multi-antenna Wi-Fi.

Next he spent several years in TI business units – doing product development, defining chip architectures and leading architecture teams – before returning to R&D. And he thinks his experience in product development is helping make the research he now oversees ever more relevant to business teams and TI customers alike.

One of his lab's top projects right now involves computational imaging. Images or video from multiple image sensors are used as input for producing much more robust results than any conventional camera could generate. Applications will be numerous: 3-D imagery for scientific exploration, depth mapping for industrial monitoring, vision systems that could enable robots to interact with their environment in much more sophisticated ways.

And what would he do if he weren't an engineer?

He thinks he'd be an auto mechanic or a woodworker. He likes the fact that both are hands-on, creative jobs that provide immediate results. And he already does both in his free time. In fact one of his fondest accomplishments – right up there with architecting the OMAP 4 – involves hot-rodding the engine of a blue 1975 Chevy Camaro.

He rebuilt the engine several times, in fact. He also likes to race cars, and he kept blowing it up.